


After the Inevitable

by Cathalinaheart



Series: The Inevitable [2]
Category: Marvel 616
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Civil War (Marvel), Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Self-Hatred, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-13 15:41:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21160307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cathalinaheart/pseuds/Cathalinaheart
Summary: Tony visits Steve's grave.(A continuation of the AU in which instead of dying on the court house steps Steve is executed for treason)





	After the Inevitable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_casual_cheesecake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_casual_cheesecake/gifts).

> Happy Birthday Maya! I wrote you thing! I hope you like it!
> 
> Thank you to Imperium for betaing.

The cold autumn rain hit Tony’s skin like small knives. If he’d forgone the umbrella on purpose, no one had to know. Slowly he made his way along the muddy path. He read the inscriptions of every gravestone he passed. They had all been people once, had all had a life. Some graves had flowers on them or a candle lit in the lanterns. Small signs that the living still remembered them.

Tony reached the grave he had come here to see. He never would have imagined Steve Rogers getting such a simple grave, even though Steve would probably have preferred that. He didn’t want statues and large monuments erected in his name. And now that he had died a traitor that would never happen.

Tony knew there had been an incident just after Steve had been buried. Someone had sprayed the word traitor on the gravestone. But there was no trace of that now. It looked pristine. There was a single flower lying next to the stone. It seemed fresh as far as Tony could tell through the rain. He wondered who left it. One of Steve Avengers? Or one of the civillains that still believed in Captain America?

Tony put the bouquet of roses he was carrying down on the other side. It was the first time he had visited the grave. He had not been able to bring himself to do it earlier. The memory of Steve’s head suddenly severed from his body still too fresh. His blood painting the stage red.

He remembered the look on Steve’s face as his eyes found Tony’s while he was being led to the guillotine. So much anger and helpless rage and betrayal, that it would haunt Tony for the rest of his life.

Not that long ago Steve had asked him if it was worth it, everything he’d done during the war. He wished he had told him that it was not. Nothing was worth Steve’s death. Anything Tony had left to give he would trade in for Steve.

A tear was making its path along Tony’s face, burning in stark contrast to the cold rain. A reminder of the life still left inside him, the exact opposite of Steve’s cold dead body underground. He raised a hand to his face to wipe away the tear, but he could no more stop the torrent of tears than he could stop the rain from falling. Tony cried and cried. His breath shaking, barely able to provide him with enough air. Thunder rolled in the distance and Tony wondered for a moment if Thor would come down from the sky to smite him for what he’d done. But the god of Thunder was as lost to this world as Captain America.

Tony had had a speech prepared. Grandiose and heartfelt, brimming with apologies and confessions and a thousand truths he should have spoken a decade ago. But this was no place for speeches. Steve wouldn’t be able to hear him anyway. What was the point? To make himself feel better? What arrogance to think he deserved this. He shouldn’t have even brought the flowers, he didn’t have the right

He imagined Steve rising from his grave to throw them back in his face. Yeah, maybe he should let the flowers stay there. If Steve disagreed he could damn well tell him himself. A slightly manic laugh broke over Tony’s lips. He was entertaining the impossible.

At least he wasn’t hallucinating Steve. That would probably be bad. Although a small part of him wished that he would. Just so he could see him again. Good thing he wasn’t a sorcerer or he might be tempted to dabble in necromancy. A shiver went down his spine, that had nothing to do with the cold seeping in. He had seen those that got resurrected and they all came back wrong. No, that was not something he should do to Steve.

Tony took a deep breath to compose himself. He knelt down in the wet grass and carefully stroked along the wet stone were Steve’s name was engraved. It wasn’t only Steve’s body that was lying below the ground. A part of Tony’s soul had been buried here as well.

He kept kneeling there until he could not feel his legs anymore.


End file.
